1972 BYU Cougars football team

The 1972 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University (BYU) for the 1972 NCAA University Division football season. It was their first year under head coach LaVell Edwards and the Cougars finished over .500 for the first time since 1969.

1972 BYU Cougars football
Conference	Western Athletic Conference
Record	7–4 (5–2 WAC)
Head coach	LaVell Edwards (1st season)
Offensive coordinator	Dave Kragthorpe (3rd season)
Offensive scheme	West Coast
Defensive coordinator	Dick Felt (1st season)
Base defense	4–3
Home stadium	Cougar Stadium
Seasons ← 1971 1973 →

1972 Western Athletic Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 13 Arizona State $	5	–	1	–	0			10	–	2	–	0
BYU	5	–	2	–	0			7	–	4	–	0
Utah	5	–	2	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
Arizona	4	–	3	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Wyoming	3	–	4	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
New Mexico	2	–	4	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Colorado State	1	–	4	–	0			1	–	10	–	0
UTEP	1	–	6	–	0			2	–	8	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 16		Kansas State*	Cougar Stadium Provo, UT	W 32–9	31,753	[1]
September 23		Utah State*	Cougar Stadium Provo, UT (rivalry)	L 19–42	35,239	[2]
September 30		at Oregon State*	Parker Stadium Corvallis, OR	L 3–29	20,065	[3]
October 7	2:00 p.m.	at Long Beach State*	Anaheim Stadium Anaheim, CA	W 38–27	11,529	[4]
October 14		UTEP	Cougar Stadium Provo, UT	W 21–14	31,176	[5]
October 21		No. 19 Arizona State	Cougar Stadium Provo, UT	L 17–49	23,561	[6]
October 28		at Colorado State	Hughes Stadium Fort Collins, CO	W 44–8	18,972	[7]
November 4		Wyoming	Cougar Stadium Provo, UT	W 33–14	22,373	[8]
November 11		at Arizona	Arizona Stadium Tucson, AZ	L 7–21	26,500	[9]
November 18		Utah	Robert Rice Stadium Salt Lake City, UT (Holy War)	W 16–7	24,917	[10]
November 25		at New Mexico	University Stadium Albuquerque, NM	W 21–7	9,490	[11]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

^[12]

Preseason

Defensive coordinator LaVell Edwards was promoted to head coach in January to take over for the departed Tommy Hudspeth,^[13] who ended up as the head coach at UTEP by season's end.

BYU was returning 28 players from the previous year but Golden Richards would not be one of them. Richards claimed it was because the Cougars were still a run-oriented offense while BYU and Edwards said it was because Richards had trouble keeping with his academics.^[14]

Game summaries

Kansas State

Pete Van Valkenburg rushed for 164 yards on 16 carries, scored on a 59-yard run in the first quarter and set up Dave Terry for BYU's second touchdown. Keith Brumley's 37-yard field goal was Kansas State's only points through the first three quarters. Henry Childs caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from Dennis Morrison three minutes into the final quarter for Kansas State.

^[15]

Utah State

At Oregon State

At Long Beach State

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
BYU	0	10	14	14	38
Long Beach State	14	6	0	7	27

at Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim, CA

• Date: October 7
• Game time: 8:00 p.m. PDT
• Game attendance: 11,500
• Box Score

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP BYU Long Beach State 1 Long Beach State Drake 1-yard touchdown run, Logue kick good 0 7 1 Long Beach State Drake 1-yard touchdown run, Logue kick good 0 14 2 BYU Pete Van Valkenburg 3-yard touchdown run, John Monahan kick good 7 14 2 BYU 31-yard field goal by John Monahan 10 14 3 Long Beach State Newsome 28-yard interception return, kick blocked 10 20 3 BYU Pete Van Valkenburg 64-yard touchdown run, John Monahan kick good 17 20 3 BYU Dave Atkinson 19-yard interception return, John Monahan kick good 24 20 4 Long Beach State Fitzpatrick 1-yard touchdown run, Logue kick good 24 27 4 BYU Pete Van Valkenburg 73-yard touchdown run, John Monahan kick good 31 27 4 BYU Steve Stratton 7-yard touchdown run, John Monahan kick good 38 27 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 38 27

UTEP

Arizona State

At Colorado State

Wyoming

At Arizona

At Utah

BYU Cougars (5–4) at Utah Utes (5–4)

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
BYU	7	2	0	7	16
Utah	0	0	7	0	7

at Robert Rice Stadium, Salt Lake City, Utah

• Date: November 18, 1972
• Game weather: Overcast, 47 °F (8 °C)
• Game attendance: 24,917
• Box Score

Game information

First quarter BYU – Steve Stratton 4-yard run (John Monahan kick). BYU 7–0. Second quarter BYU – Safety. BYU 9–0. Third quarter UTAH – Ike Spencer 70-yard run (Fleming Jensen kick). BYU 9–7. Fourth quarter BYU – George Gourley 24-yard interception return (John Monahan kick). BYU 16–7. Top passers BYU – Dave Terry – 7/13, 71 yards UTAH – Daniel Payne – 3/17, 38 yards, 4 INT Top rushers BYU – Pete Van Valkenburg – 37 rushes, 158 yards UTAH – Ike Spencer – 11 rushes, 101 yards, TD Top receivers BYU – John Betham – 3 receptions, 32 yards UTAH – Stephen Odom – 2 receptions, 20 yards

BYU's first win versus Utah since 1967

At New Mexico

Personnel

Roster

1972 BYU Cougars football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 9 Dave Affleck FB 34 Charlie Ah You QB 7 Bill August C 61 Joe Bailey WR 41 John Betham FB 36 Wayne Bower OT 79 Dave Brooks WR 42 Dave Clark FB 22 Dean Conway OT 64 Bill Critchfield OT 62 Craig Denny RB 36 Paul Devine TE 80 Dennis Dorman G 68 Harold Farnsworth RB Gil Gillenwater QB 15 Brian Gunderson C 56 Paul Gustavson G 78 Paul Howard WR 25 Logan Hunter RB 20 Bryce Johnson OL 66 Doug Maughan QB 14 Terry McEwen G 76 Val Miller G 71 John Monahan QB 16 Mark Montgomery OT 70 Paul Muklewicz OT 53 Ken Peterson TE 89 Mike Pistorius OT 65 Steve Price WR 90 Rick Powell C 59 Sid Smith FB 35 Steve Stratton RB 43 Dan Taylor QB 13 Dave Terry RB 28 Pete Van Valkenburg WR 22 Lynn Zwahlen	Defense Pos. # Name Class DE 85 Joel Adams LB 45 Doug Adams CB Dave Atkinson DT 72 Wayne Baker LB 69 Jerry Burke CB 18 Stan Call LB 67 Larry Carr DE 58 Conrad Cole S 44 Craig Crompton LB 54 Steve Draeger LB 84 Greg Dunn S 17 Fred EchoHawk S 24 Tom EchoHawk DB 12 Mike Epperson DE 56 Lloyd Fairbanks CB 31 Reed Gempler S 33 George Gourley S 11 Dan Hansen LB 52 Kahlili Hunt LB 34 Phil Jensen Fr CB 26 Paul Karaica DE 87 Bob Larsen DT 74 Paul Linford DT 60 Wally Molifua LB 57 Larry Nelson DL 83 Orrin Olsen LB 50 Mike Preston DE 46 Roy Robbins LB 37 Karl Rogoff DE 88 Ed Rozeski DT 63 Julian Smilowitz DB 5 Bennie Smith LB 51 Scott Stapley LB 32 Ron Tree DE 73 Stan Varner DT 77 Grant Wells	Special teams Pos. # Name Class P 14 Doug Coon K 19 Dennis Olsen	Head coach LaVell Edwards Coordinators/assistant coaches Jim Criner Dick Felt (DC/DB) J.D. Helm (RB) Dave Kragthorpe (OC/OL) Mel Olson (JV) Dewey Warren (QB/WR) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Starters

Offense

POS	Name	Name
QB	Dave Terry
TB	Pete Van Valkenburg
FB	Steve Stratton	Wayne Bower
WR	Logan Hunter
WR	John Betham
TE	Dennis Doman	Mike Pistorius
T	Craig Denny
G	Paul Howard
C	Joe Bailey
G	John Monahan
T	Steve Price	Dave Brooks

Defense

POS	Name	Name
DL	Ed Rozeski
DL	Paul Linford
DL	Grant Wells	Wayne Baker
DL	Orrin Olsen	Bob Larsen
LB	Ron Tree
LB	Larry Carr	Kahili Hunt
LB	Phil Jensen	Mike Preston
DB	George Gourley	Bennie Smith
DB	Dave Atkinson
DB	Craig Compton
DB	Dan Hansen

^[16]

Statistics

Passing

Player	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT
Bill August	69	144	891	5	5
Dave Terry	62	122	742	2	10
Pete Van Valkenburg	2	5	32	1
John Betham	0	1

Rushing

Player	Att	Yards	TD
Pete Van Valkenburg	232	1,386	12
Steve Stratton	78	328	3
Wayne Bower	43	271	1
Dan Taylor	46	161	1
Dave Terry	61	120	2
Gil Gillenwater	3	56
Bill August	50	22
Bryce Johnson	1	0
John Betham	4	-15

Receiving

Player	Rec	Yards	TD
Logan Hunter	49	555	2
John Betham	19	345	2
Mike Pistorius	16	314	2
Pete Van Valkenburg	10	98	1
Lynn Zwahlen	5	95	1
Jay Miller	6	30
Dennis Doman	7	59
Steve Stratton	8	55
Dan Taylor	4	45
Wayne Bower	4	36
Dave Affleck	3	15
Dave Terry	1	10
Bryce Johnson	1	8

Awards

All-WAC: Dave Atkinson, Dan Hansen, Paul Howard, Paul Linford, Ron Tree, Pete Van Valkenburg ^[13]

WAC Coach of the Year: LaVell Edwards ^[17]